GRT Spring Service Changes

The iON construction and the annual decline in ridership in the Spring mean that bus routes will be changing in late April, a change that will directly impact Waterloo Collegiate passengers.

Many students at Waterloo Collegiate use public transit weekly to get to and from WCI and to other parts of the city. The school is directly served by two transit agencies: Metrolinx (in the form of GO Transit), and Grand River Transit (GRT) – the regional public transit service. From WCI, GO Transit operates the route 25 service to Mississauga while GRT operates numerous routes that serve much of Waterloo Region.

For those students who take public transit, GRT will be changing some of its services on April 25. The majority of these changes are made up of semi-permanent detours due to iON construction (the region’s rapid transit service, launching formally in the fall of 2017) and reductions in bus headways. There is also a planned introduction of busPLUS route 77, a pilot route that will operate from the Boardwalk to New Hamburg.

A GRT bus operator wishing to remain anonymous said, “GRT reduces headways on high-frequency routes on an annual basis during the spring university terms because classes are reduced, and therefore, less capacity is required to serve students. If we [GRT] didn’t do this, then taxpayers would need to subsidize even more for public transit.” It is inefficient to run buses that would not see sufficient ridership during this period of time. Although less service can be a headache, students must accept that these service reductions have a purpose.

I myself am a route 31 rider and will not see any service reductions that may affect my commute to WCI. However, my transportation to other parts of the city (such as the Boardwalk) will be greatly affected, leaving me to be in a state of frustration. This frustration is going to be shared by the hundreds of students at WCI that utilize public transit.

For those who do not take public transit, WCI is served directly by routes: 7, 8, 9 /13, 12, 29, 31, 91, 92, 200, 201 and 202. Of these twelve routes, nine of their schedules are affected because of the spring service changes. The following is a list of these nine routes, and how they will be changed as of April 25 (The full list of changes with schedules can be found at http://www.grt.ca/en/routesschedules/busschedule.asp.):

Route 7 Mainline: Headways reduced.

Spur 7C headways are reduced to 15 minutes during the afternoon rush hour

Spur 7D headways are reduced to 30 minutes during the afternoon rush hours

Removed any university shuttles

Route 9 Lakeshore/13 Laurelwood: Headways reduced.

Trips with short turns at Laurelwood or McCormick removed

Removed any university shuttles

Route 12 Conestoga Mall/Fairview Park Mall: Headways reduced.

Headways between WCI and Conestoga Mall are reduced to 30 minutes at all times